First Canadian Charged with NSL

Former Sing Tao editor Ho is charged with violating NSL

Depressing news coming out of Hong Kong -- the 47 activists, lawmakers and academics who are charged with "conspiracy to subversion" for organising an unofficial primary election among pan-democrats two years ago, will not have a trial by jury. Instead three judges picked by the government will hear their case.

This is the first time in 177 years in Hong Kong's common law legal system for this to happen, but since the national security law was implemented in July 2020, the judiciary is perceived as less than egalitarian.

Lai will be tried in a non-jury trial

A few hours later it was announced that Apple Daily founder and tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying's case will also be a non-jury trial, as directed in both cases by the justice minister.

The verdicts are a foregone conclusion.

Across the Pacific there's a person who has been charged with subversion too.

Victor Ho Leung-mau is a former editor of Sing Tao in Vancouver. On July 27, he and two others held a press conference in Toronto to announce the formation of Hong Kong Parliament Electoral Organizing Committee. 

It has a really long name, but its goal is to establish a "Hong Kong parliament" in exile. One of the founding members is ex-lawmaker-elect Baggio Leung Chung-hang. The 35-year-old sought asylum in the United States following the implementation of the national security law.

The group wants to follow the examples of Uyghurs who have their own World Uyghur Congress, and Tibetans have the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, and set up a political body for the Hong Kong diaspora. 

Leung is also charged with subverting state power

"It is the Committee's belief that only a genuine democratic election could literally [speak up] for the people of Hong Kong," a statement read.

Days after the two-hour press conference, the Hong Kong government issued a statement that stated Ho was wanted for allegedly subverting state power.

"How did we suddenly get to a place where I have become like a fugitive... just because I was talking about a political concept that can or can't really materialise?" he said to the Vancouver Sun.

Well, the Security Bureau takes any threat seriously. And surely Ho should have known forming such a committee was bound to attract attention from the Hong Kong authorities? If not, he is naive at how far Beijing will go to crush dissent.

His friends and family are worried, not just for him, but for themselves being associated with who the Hong Kong government now considers a serious threat.

"We are Chinese-Canadians in Canada and now we have to hold back from joining in such a conceptual exercise related to Hong Kong. When we came here, we thought we could live in an open society without fear. Now, you have fear, because they are saying [the national security law] applies worldwide. I myself am not scared, but I have family members who are," he said.

Ho and another co-founder of the committee

Two Members of Parliament have written letters, as well as the Chinese-Canadian Concern Group on the Chinese Communist Party's Human Rights Violations, telling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly to publicly oppose Hong Kong's actions.

No response yet, but the response has to be strong to demonstrate Canada's commitment to universal rights and freedoms...